Fatal Fall and Cover-up

The Telegram reported the Aug. 7 death and cover-up of Walter E. Haddad. State and federal agencies investigated the suspsicious circumstances surrounding the death of Haddad who died after he fell and hit his head, and nursing home staff covered up the fall rather than send him to the hospital.

The report said that after hearing a loud thud about midnight on Aug. 6, a certified nurse assistant and a licensed practical nurse found Mr. Haddad lying on the floor and they put him back in his bed. No assessment by a registered nurse was done. The CNA told investigators that he did not report the fall, as required by the facility, because the LPN had asked him not to.

“However, staff did not complete a thorough clinical evaluation or neurological assessment on (Mr. Haddad), which resulted in a delay of transfer to the hospital for evaluation of possible injury,” investigators said in the report.

Mr. Haddad’s daughter, Lorna Haddad, took issue with the report. She said staff should have been more careful because they knew that her father, who helped found the nursing home, had a history of falls. The retired accountant had moved into the nursing home last year, after Parkinson’s disease left him prone to falls. She said notification of his fall risk was posted throughout his area of the facility.

“I think the report is meaningless,” she said. “The fact that he didn’t have an alarmed bed or an alarmed chair is alarming.”

The report in general said professional standards of quality were not met because of the actions or inactions of the staff. Every time a patient falls, injury or not, they’re required to call the physician and the patient’s family.

The morning after he fell, Mr. Haddad told several staff about the incident. The only thing that they did was to give him Tylenol. When Mr. Haddad’s family came to visit, he told them that he had fallen the night before and hit his head. Staff told the family that there was no report of a fall and that Mr. Haddad may have been mistaken or confused. When his speech became slurred and he complained of neck pain, he was taken to the trauma unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he died.